Mountain Lion
 

Here is a shot of one of the two Mountain Lions I mentioned in another post ( Colorado Closed) They have taken many of the local dogs and a 400 lb+ Lama. This one is actually stalking humans with small dogs that passed just before.

That is a BIG cat. :eek:

Not to nit pick but .....

A one "L" Lama is a Dali, as in Dali Lama
A two "L" Llama is the furry pack animal that you mentioned above

.... and a three "L" lama is a hell of a fire. :D

"GROAN." :p

Pat

The lessons we never forget, thank you...and for the pun.

This dog can hunt but I don't. At this point in time as well as current use I can think of more reasons I am glad these predators are where they are. Thanks to Oldrotorhead I have learned much about their and other critters patterns.

Years ago a 6 month old cat was found starved to death ( as determined by State wildlife officials ) in the same area. Observation...Due to the forest fire across the valley game is plentiful on this side so predators have a good echo system now. If my use changes I should know when and where to look if needed.

With all of the encroaching developement in Southern California in the past decades there have been more and more sightings, walking through yards, running down streets, eating in backyards, not to mention 3 fatal attacks on humans in the past 15 years or so. There have even been sightings near where I live and I'm a long way from any wilderness areas. They've been labeled a protected species in California for a long time and are not hunted anymore.

My advice, Never, ever hike with anyone that can run faster than you!;)

While I was in Okinawa I learned to SCUBA dive. While working on my dive master cert I assisted the instructor with basic dive classes. One Canadian asked me about my tanto dive knife in front of a bunch of students, he said:

"Is that knife for shark attacks?"

I answered "Yup"

He then said:

"You would stab the shark if it attacked?"

I said "Nope, I'd just cut one of you and slowly swim away" :munchin

Sounds like something Brian Bewley would say (Oki circa 1995).

Probably got it from me..... Okinawa 91-94 ;)

Wow. Big fella!

When I lived in the mountains above the Napa Valley we'd get the cats through the yard sometimes. Never saw one, just tracks, but wish I would have. I'd go for my evening walk through the woods with my landlord's dog for company. Partway home he'd leave me and I'd walk through the darkening woods, sometimes feeling one of those big cats watching me. I was probably just imaging things... :)

I much prefer the woods of Alaska where the bears are more predictable. Mountains lions scare the *#$ out me with their sneaky ways.

Susan

OK you got me with that last part, checked my phone at lunch and laughed so hard the entire restaurant turned to look, I miss that humor.

Requiem, the tracks are just shy of the size of my spread hand the others just a tad smaller.

All we've got around these parts are feral house cats…..which surprisingly get pretty big and nasty…..fun to hunt/shoot when you wander across them here in NZ.

Quite resilient buggers too.

I'd love to fly up and hunt a Mountain Lion. The closest I've seen any big cat in the wild was in Africa when we had some time to follow up baboon/leopard tracks in soft soil.

After about a K of mixed baboon and leopard tracks it looked like an open air abattoir.

Casting out for sign a fair distance, as best we can tell(and with no trees within the cast), the only thing that left alive was the leopard.

From what I was told about leopard behaviour is they don't target fixate, they'll try and hit most/everything in a group quickly, then finish off the wounded one by one.

Earlier this year in Afghan I met up with a great South African fella who is working on an animal conservation project and had just gotten the first game camera snaps of a Persian Leopard seen in Afghan in apparently quite some time.

Pretty cool looking animal…..shame he couldn't communicate it locally out of legitimate fear of poachers who would hunt/trap/kill it without a second's thought.

Wow! The lion tracks I've seen were never that big. Your cat tracks sound as large as some of the bear tracks I've seen around here.

Susan